Baltimore Ravens up and coming lineman Timmy Jernigan announced his intention last week to switch his jersey number to honor a former NFL great who he admired growing up and now models his game after:
Jernigan, who played the past two seasons as number 97, admired Sapp as "Nasty, ferocious, he came to play every game." As a Florida native, he watched Sapp play at University of Miami and then as a Tampa Bay Buc. When teammate Chris Canty retired this offseason, Jernigan decided to honor the former player.
However, his choice was not lauded by Sapp, who chose to be insulting and not the least bit gracious.